"For over one-hundred years, Woodstock has been a place of dreams and ideas for art, political philosophy and alternative lifestyles." To honor and build on these traditions, the Woodstock Film Festival presents EXPOSURE–a program that features panels and thought-provoking international films that emphasize social, political and environmental concerns.

By hosting EXPOSURE in a setting that has a longstanding tradition for social consciousness, the Woodstock Film Festival creates a natural progression by which programming can focus on matters that affect our lives and our world while seeking to heighten awareness and to stimulate dialogue and positive resolution.

Recent films include:CHASING ICE... A glimpse deeper into the world of the ice caps and glaciers with National Geographic Explorers as they document the rapid vanishing of these features through time-lapse technology.DEAR GOVERNOR CUOMO... a powerful documentary taking fracking's most outspoken activists (Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Merchant, Melissa Leo) and explaining the terrors fracking in NY state could bring.IDLE THREAT... self-described vigilante, George Pakenham walks the streets of NYC warning people about the 3-minute idling law the city enforces and the danges of letting your vehicle idle extensively.FIGHT TO LIVE...veteran WFF director Barbara Kopple brings to light the seemingly archaic drug approval process the FDA has. Showing the struggles of different people with debilitating diseases as they fight to obtain the drugs that can save them.MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD... Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney exposes the abuse of power in the Catholic church and a cover-up that winds its way fromt he row houses of Milwaukee, WI, to the bare ruined choirs of Ireland's churches all the way to the highest office in the Vatican.DINNER AT THE NO-GO'S... Filmmaker Marco Orsini takes viewers on a journey to the world's "no-fly" zones and holds dinner parties in each county where politics, religion and ethics are discussed, dispite all the taboos.INFORMANT... This documentary follows the story of Brandon Darby, a grassroots activist turned vilified FBI informant in the wreckage of a post-Katrina New Orleans.

Other films over the years focused on other topics including domestic and global politics THE BOYS OF BARAKA... A stunning coming-of-age story that follows a group of extraordinary 12 year-old boys from the inner city of Baltimore who leave home to attend an experimental boarding school in East Africa.THE DEVIL's MINER... the story of 14-year-old Basilio Vargas and his 12-year-old brother Bernardino, as they work in the Bolivian silver mines of Cerro Rico. ANYTOWN USA... Political tempers heat up as fierce opposition, passionate support, and old-fashioned mudslinging characterize the race for mayor between three candidates in a two-party system, where two of the three politicans are legally blind.OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows James Carville, Jeremy Rosner and others from the Greenberg Carville Shrum firm as they travel to South America to help Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (Goni) become President of Bolivia. STATE OF FEARdramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a war against terror, potentially without end, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain.

Select films over the years have focused on WAR (OFF TO WAR, SOLDIER'S PAY, Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone, Chico, Routine)
HEALTH RELATED ISSUES (CONVERATIONS WITH NICKLE, Live Free or Die, Undetectable; The New Face of Aids)ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS (Go Further, Garbage, Gangsters and Greed)DISABILITIES (How’s Your News, Our House)GLOBAL POLITICS (THE FORBIDDEN TEAM, The Agronomist, The Revolution will not be Televised, Five Days in March, Amandla) and more.YOUTH AT RISK (THIS BOY'S LIFE, MANIC, GIRLHOOD...)

Film has always been considered an extraordinarily persuasive medium of communication, and in times of war or when national security seems threatened, movies come under increasing scrutiny and criticism. Do filmmakers, distributors, and exhibitors have a responsibility to respond to changes in the cultural and political climate? Are there forces working to censor or refine the messages audiences receive during politically risky times?

THE ART OF DISSENT featuring a concert with Arlo Guthrie & friends and a conversation with Nora Guthrie from the Woody Guthrie Foundation, Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool, No Nukes...) and Harold Leventhal (Bound for Glory, Alice’s Restaurant).

MOVIES THAT MATTER
Films have an enormous social impact whether they are purely entertainment or take on a social issue. In helping to define the fabric of our culture, do filmmakers have a responsibility to address social issues? Where do films fit into the larger context of storytelling in culture, both ours and others cultures and how can their importance be gauged relative to literature, theater, television, music? These questions and more will be discussed with Caroline Baron, producer (Monsoon Wedding, Flawless, Kama Sutra, Witness to the Mob) and founder/executive director of Film Aid International www.filmaidinternational.org); Godfrey Chesire (film critic, New York Press, New York Times, Talk, Variety and former chairman, NY Film Critics Circle); and Peter Saraf, producer (Mandela, Ulee's Gold and the upcoming Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep and The Truth About Charlie starring Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton); and other distinguished panelists to be announced later.

GIRLFIGHT, A SPOTLIGHT SEMINAR ON WOMEN IN FILM featuring Karen Durbin and Karyn Kusama dealt with many social issues including the role of women in a male dominated industry.

GARBAGE GANGSTERS, AND GREED, which featured high school filmmakers and U.S. House representative Maurice D. Hinchey focused on landfill abuses, government responsibilities and the role of education as a means to conflict resolution.

In September 2001, just two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, every panel and Q&A at the Woodstock Film Festival turned into an introspective discussion of the role and responsibility of art in society.

For information about sponsoring EXPOSURE PROGRAMMING, contact the woodstock FIlm Festival at (845) 679-4265.

The Woodstock Film Festival is an educational not-for-profit, 501 (C)(3) organization with a mission to present an annual
program and year-round schedule of film, music, and art-related activities that promote artists, culture, inspired learning, and diversity.
The Hudson Valley Film Commission promotes sustainable economic development by attracting
and supporting film, video and media production in the Hudson Valley - Catskills.